Friday, February 22, 2008

Adi Parva - Sambhava Parva 37

"Vaisampayana said, 'O monarch, after the nuptials were over, kingSantanu established his beautiful bride in his household. Soon after wasborn of Satyavati an intelligent and heroic son of Santanu namedChitrangada. He was endued with great energy and became an eminent man.The lord Santanu of great prowess also begat upon Satyavati another sonnamed Vichitravirya, who became a mighty bowman and who became king afterhis father. And before that bull among men, viz., Vichitravirya, attainedto majority, the wise king Santanu realised the inevitable influence ofTime. And after Santanu had ascended to heaven. Bhishma, placing himselfunder the command of Satyavati, installed that suppressor of foes, viz.,Chitrangada, on the throne, who, having soon vanquished by his prowessall monarchs, considered not any man as his equal. And beholding that hecould vanquish men, Asuras, and the very gods, his namesake, the powerfulking of the Gandharvas, approached him for an encounter. Between thatGandharva and that foremost one of the Kurus, who were both verypowerful, there occurred on the field of Kurukshetra a fierce combatwhich lasted full three years on the banks of the Saraswati. In thatterrible encounter characterised by thick showers of weapons and in whichthe combatants ground each other fiercely, the Gandharva, who had greaterprowess or strategic deception, slew the Kuru prince. Having slainChitrangada--that first of men and oppressor of foes--the Gandharvaascended to heaven. When that tiger among men endued with great prowesswas slain, Bhishma, the son of Santanu, performed, O king, all hisobsequies. He then installed the boy Vichitravirya of mighty arms, stillin his minority, on the throne of the Kurus. And Vichitravirya, placinghimself under the command of Bhishma, ruled the ancestral kingdom. And headored Santanu's son Bhishma who was conversant with all the rules ofreligion and law; so, indeed, Bhishma also protected him that was soobedient to the dictates of duty.'"